


Autumn's Fallout

by GalaxySpawn



Category: Fallout 4
Genre: Alternate universe fallout 4, Canon-Typical Violence, Crying, Gen, I Tried, I haven't decided yet, Mild Language, No Sole Survivor, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Possible Character Death, Possible revisions later, Tags May Change, Tears, Violence, mild gore and blood, possibly, sicknesses, use of drugs and alcohol
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-12-18
Updated: 2018-01-19
Packaged: 2019-02-16 19:29:51
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 7
Words: 13,397
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13060638
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/GalaxySpawn/pseuds/GalaxySpawn
Summary: What if MacCready had a daughter instead of a son? What if he brought his daughter with him to the Commonwealth?When they get to Commonwealth his only daughter is too sick to walk, MacCready has to put aside his mercinary rule of working alone and work with a loud Russian to save the only family he has left.As she grows up she becomes known as the daughter of the best shot in the Commonwealth. Not knowing where she fits in in the craziness of the Commonwealth she makes a few mistakes and finds some new friends along the way.





	1. Beginning of Hell

**Author's Note:**

> I haven't changed to much lore wise, i did change timeline and a few characters. As you may notice there isn't going to be a SS in this story.

Nick was a synth, he didn't need to eat or sleep, so when there was a knock on his door in the middle of the night he didn't waste any time opening the door. He opened the door and there stood a very thin man. Hiding his brown hair was a green military hat with two rounds of .308 tucked in one side. He was wearing a tan trench coat, the front stopped at his waist, the back was torn and ripped but went as far down and his knees. He wore a handmade leather belt over the trench coat, and hanging from the belt was a pair of military binoculars. The left shoulder of the coat was ripped was missing the sleeve. Under the coat you could see a green long sleeve shirt. He had on green pants, on his left leg was two rows of ammo strapped to his leg. Just below his knee he had wrapped duct tape on his pants as if he was trying to fix a rip. On his right leg he had a small military pouch wrapped around his leg. He had on worn out and dirty combat boots. He was holding a small bundle of blankets, and in the middle of those blankets was a small child no older than 3 to 3 and a half, covered in blue boils.  
“Nick” the man said, obviously very exhausted and dripping wet from the rain.  
“Nick…. I need your help, badly. You know I would be here if it wasn't serious” the man said looking from the small child to Nick.  
“God, come on in out of the cold. She shouldn't be out in this” Nick said as he stepped aside to let the man in. The man almost fell over walking in the door but he caught himself before he dropped the bundle of blankets.  
“Damn, neither of you are in good shape. Go sit on the couch before you fall over. Besides it should be warmer over there” Nick said closing the door and pointing to the couch against the wall. Nick didn't really care about the temperature in the room, it didn't bother him since he was a synth, but he always kept the furnace going at night. He did this for those clients that came in cold with nowhere else to go. The man made his way over to the couch Nick had pointed out. He slowly sat down, all the while watching the small child in his arms. Once he was sitting he took a deep breath and exhaled it. Nick could see a wave of relief fall over the man.  
“Didn't know you had a kid” nick said sitting in his chair that was across the small room from the couch.  
“That's what I need your help with. Shes sick, all the doctors i've talked to have no idea what's wrong. They all say that i just need to give up but i can't give up on her…. I can't lose her. I've been asking around and i think i've found a cure. About a week ago I bumped into a guy named Sinclair who claims his buddy caught some kind of disease. I thought he was wasting my time until he said his partner broke out in blue boils. They dug up information about a cure at a place called Med-Tek research. They even managed to grab the buildings lock down security codes. Unfortunately Sinclairs buddy died before they were able to break into the facility. I mean there's no way that's a coincidence, right?! Med-Tek has to be the place!” the man said. He had so much confidence that the cure was there. For the kids sake, Nick hoped it was there too.  
“So what do you need from me? You already tracked down the cure” Nick asked leaning back in his chair looking the man in the eyes.  
“I can get the cure by myself, but I wouldn't dare try and bring her with me to get it. I'm out of caps though, so I can't pay anyone to watch her, and I don't know anyone well enough to feel comfortable just leaving her.” the man said looking back down to the small child as she yawned.  
“Except me” Nick said still looking at the man.  
“i have no other choice. I know I'm new to the Commonwealth, and what I do isn't something to be proud of and I know you look down on people like me, but I really need your help” the man said avoiding eye contact with Nick.  
“So let me get this straight, you want me to watch your kid while you go get the cure she needs” Nick said crossing his arms. Nick liked kids, and they liked him. For some reason Nick felt very irritated, he's hated mercenary's ever since one used Nick, he swore to never let that happen again, but in this situation he wasn't helping the mercenary he was helping the kid. Nick felt very strong about children not being judged for what their parents have done. So he decided to help the man, but he was doing it to help the kid.  
“Yes…” the man said slowly still avoiding eye contact.  
“Alright, but let's get one thing straight right now. I'm doing this to help her” he said leaning forward and pointing at the child.  
“I don't help mercs and I'm not helping you, I'm helping her” he said still pointing at the child.  
“That's all I ask for Nick" the man said looking up at Nick. The man got up slowly and started to put the bundle of blankets on the couch but Nick stopped him.  
“Hey if I'm going to be watching over this kid, I want her to have the bed, hell I don't need it” he said as he motioned for the man to follow him to the back room of his office. They walked down a short hallway to a small room. The bed was against the wall on the right of the room. There were stairs going up above the bed heading to the roof.  
“Set her down here. I think i got a pillow here somewhere” Nick said looking around the room.the man set the child down carefully on the bed. Nick found the pillow and handed it to the man who put it under the child's head. Nick didn't notice the backpack the man had on until he slid it off his shoulders and next to the bed. Nick noticed that the man was in pain as he slid the backpack off his back, but he didn't say anything about it.  
“There's some food, painkillers and her stuff animal in here. If she wakes up she probably won't want to eat anything and I gave her some painkillers about an hour ago so she won't need any for about 6 hours. So if she does wake up she'll probably just want her stuff animal. She's….. sh-...... She hasn't been well enough to walk around for a few days now. So  
She shouldn't be up” the man said choking on his words. Nick was silent, he didn't have anything he could say to comfort the man, no matter how much he wished he did. Nick hated mercenaries, but he felt bad for this man.  
“I'll get going, she needs that cure as soon as possible. And I don't want you to have to deal with us any longer than you have to” the man said as he turned to leave. He started to walk but he kept one hand on the wall and the other grabbing his side. He tried so desperately to hide he was doing this but it was pretty much Nick's job to notice these type of things.  
“Hold on there just a second” Nick said walking in front of the man to stop him.  
“It's the middle of the night. Your very obviously exhausted. Couch is yours tonight” Nick said looking at the man in the eyes  
“I really-” the man started but Nick interrupted him  
“You're not going to get very far if before you end up getting ambushed by raiders” Nick said still looking at the man.  
“It'll be fine I just need to ge-” the man started to talk but once again Nick interrupted him.  
“you're no good to your daughter dead. Rest and leave in the morning” Nick said trying to convince the man.  
“Alright” the man said exhaling. He walked over to the couch and layed down on it.  
“I've got some paperwork to finish. You don't mind the light do you?” Nick asked sitting back down in his chair and spinning around to his desk.  
“I've slept in worse conditions. It'll be fine. And uh, Nick….. thank you. I know it doesn't mean much coming from me but, I really do appreciate and i owe you one” the man said as he stared up at the ceiling.  
“say, I've never gotten your name” Nick said as he looked through his paperwork.  
“Robert Joseph MacCready. My friends call me RJ” he paused for a moment.  
“Or they used to. actually i prefer to go by MacCready”


	2. Help wanted

Nick was sitting in his chair looking over some case files that had come in that week. It was no more that what he usually had every week, but he would have to put off any field work for a while so he could watch the small child sleeping in the other room. As Nick sat there he could hear MacCready behind him, checking his gun and making sure he had enough ammo for the trip to Med-Tek.  
“Alright, i'm going to get going, i should be back tonight or tomorrow morning” MacCready said standing up and heading towards the door.  
“Hey, MacCready” Nick said getting out of his chair so he could be eye level with MacCready. MacCready turned away from the door to look at nick.  
“Be careful” nick said as he lit his cigarette  
MacCready didn't respond. He looked away from Nick and then disappeared out the door.

It had been about 4 hours since MacCready left Nick's house in Diamond city before he arrived at Med-Tek. MacCready stood there just outside the buildings parking lot. He looked over the notes he got from Sinclair about the building, and decided that it was safer and faster to go through the front door. Sniper rifle in hand, he started to walk towards the door. Suddenly he heard a loud screeching noise. Aiming, he looked towards where the sound had come from when he saw a herd of ferals running towards him. They were almost too close for him to have enough time to react. He managed to get a shot off before one of the ferals tackled him and pinned him to the ground. He quickly pulled his pistol out of his leg holster and shot the feral on top of him. He rolled over grabbed his gun and tried to get up but one of the ferals grabbed his leg. He managed to shoot the feral but not before it left a giant gash on his leg.  
“Sh- Ugh” MaCready yelled. His adrenaline was pumping so he barely felt the large wound on his leg. He shot a few more with his pistol before his grabbed his sniper rifle off the ground and slung it on his back. He started to back away from the building shooting at the ferals, but they just kept coming. He was so focused on the ferals in front of him that he didn't notice when one ran up beside him knocking him onto a pre-war car then pushing him to the ground. He had accidentally dropped his pistol on the ground but it was to far away for him to grab it. With one feral on top of him and more running at him, he had to act fast. As he tried to get the feral off of him he noticed a tire iron under the car he was laying next to. He managed to get an arm free to grab it. He stabbed it in the ferals head killing it, he pushed the feral over and grabbed his pistol. The ferals just kept coming and coming, he was more than outnumbered. He made a break for it, running as fast as he could.  
He ran about a half mile from Med-Tek before the adrenaline started to wear off and he could feel the pain from his bruises and the deep gash on his leg. He stopped running and looked behind him to see if he was still being followed. The ferals were nowhere in sight. He was now breathing very heavily from from the fight and from running as fast as he could to get away. He knew he wouldn't get back to diamond city if he didn't treat the gash on his leg. He found a building that looked like it wasn't going to fall down right ontop of him if he went inside. Before he limped inside, he made one last check behind him to make sure the ferals werent still following him.

It was basically dark outside when Nick had finished looking over all the paperwork he had. It normally never took him this long to look over case files but he had to stop quite often to check on the child. He leaned back in his chair looking at the stack of case files he had just finished going over. He looked over towards the room where the small child was sleeping in. she had been sleeping all day, and she had slept all night without making a sound.  
“Damn” nick said under his breath. Children should be full of energy, but this child wasn't. Nick sincerely hoped that MacCready had found the cure and was on his way back. Nick wasn't too fond of MacCready but he hated seeing this child suffer, But she wasn't the only one suffering, MacCready was suffering along with her. She was the only family he had left. Nick knew it probably hurt him to see his child like this. The only way he could help was finding this cure before…. Nick didn't want to think about what would happen if MacCready didn't find the cure intime. Just then he heard a loud knock on the door. Nick wondered why MacCready was knocking instead of just coming in. he got up and opened the door. He expected to see MacCready standing there, but it wasn't him. Instead it was one of diamond city's security guards. It was always strange when one of the guards showed up at nick's door. They always stayed away from his detective work.  
“Some guy just stumbled in through the gates and then passed out. He was hurt pretty badly so we got him to doctor Sun. nobody knows who this guy is but one of the other guards says he saw the man yesterday and he was heading here. So we figured you knew the guy. Since he's unconscious, he's become your responsibility.  
“Oh boy” nick said sighing.  
“Ok” nick said. He listened for the child but she was still out. He didn't think she would wake up anytime soon so he followed the guard.

 

MacCready slowly opened his eyes to see a familiar ceiling. He looked around to make unsure if he was just seeing things or if he was truly back at Nick's office. His eyes landed on the back of a familiar person.  
“Eugh, i feel like shi-...crap” he said correcting himself. Nick was looking back over the case files he had been looking over that day.  
“You look like it too” he said not looking away from the case files. MacCready tried to sit up, but stopped as soon as he felt the pain from the large bruise on his side. Instead he slid the pillow down and used it to prop his back up. Looking down at his leg which had been wrapped, and was also propped up using a rolled up blanket.  
“So did you get it?” nick asked turning around to look at MacCready.  
“No, ferals nearly tore me apart when i tried to get into the building” he said stretching his arms.  
“Ill head out again in a few hours” he said calmly, as if he was perfectly fine and could walk all that way again. Nick laughed.  
“You're not going anywhere on that leg, yeah you got a stim pack for it but the doc said it was going to take at least a day maybe more for the stim pack to completely work. why in the hell would you come all the way back here just to leave almost as soon as you got here” nick said frowning.  
“I didn't know any other place close that had a doctor, needed someone to patch up my leg so i can head back. And I'm out of stim packs. Besides it's not that bad” he said trying to act tough.   
“You go back there alone again and you're not coming back, i can almost guarantee it. You're gonna need help getting into that place” nick said leaning back in his chair crossing his arms.   
“No way, i work alone, besides i don't know anyone i could trust to not stab me in the back as soon as we find the cure” MacCready said. by now he was getting really irritated that Nick was questioning him so much.  
“God you're so stubborn, i'm surprised you haven't gotten yourself killed yet!” Nick said also getting very irritated.  
“Look i got a a friend who i trust a great deal, he would be able to help you break into Med-Tek. He's in town right now so it would be easy to talk to him. He also owes me a few favors so you wouldn't have to pay him” Nick said. By now he was very annoyed with how stubborn MacCready was, but MacCready was also getting very irritated with Nick.  
“I've got this, just give me a fe-” MacCready started to argue but Nick interrupted  
“You need my help but you won't take my advise or help. I'm trying to help that little girl in there” nick said pointing towards the room she was sleeping in. MacCready looked towards where Nick was pointing.  
“Alright” he said not looking away from the room

Nick walked into the familiar bar, he met many clients here and even got into a fight here once. He wasn't looking for a drink though, he was looking for a certain person, he walked through the long hallway and into the bar. He briefly scanned the bar looking for the familiar face. He wasn't hard to spot though. The man he was looking for was in the middle of a circle of men. Nick wasn't surprised to see the man had already gotten himself into a bar fight. He walked over to group of men yelling and drinking. He looked past them and made eye contact with the man he was looking for  
“Victor” nick said smirking at the man.  
“Nick!” the man said mid punch in a heavy Russian accent. He smiled at nick then looked back to the man he was fighting. He punched him once and the man fell to the ground unconscious. The crowd went silent, and just stared at the man  
“Alright well that was fun, i must go now and talk to a my friend” he said in his heavy Russian accent as he walked out of the circle and over to nick. The man now came into full view of nick. He was tall and stocky. He had short red hair, and a big beard. He was wearing a grey long sleeve shirt with the sleeves rolled up and dark blue jeans. He also had on very muddy boots.  
“Come my friend! I owe you a drink…. Wait do you drink? If not i owe you a cigarette. You still smoke yes?” Victor said putting one arm around nick and walking towards to bar.  
“Yeah i can drink” nick said almost laughing. They sat at the bar and ordered 2 beers.  
“So to what do i owe the pleasure of a visit from one of my good friends” Victor said leaning one arm on the bar and looking at nick.  
“I got a favor to ask Victor” nick said after he took a drink of his beer.   
“Anything for you my friend! Veector is here to help” he said with a giant grin on his face.  
“Well I'm going to be honest with you, i'm not the one who needs help. Yesterday a man knocked on my door asking for help. His daughter is badly sick. He found a place that might have the cure. But he can't get into the place alone. He tried, but there's too many ferals surrounding the place. So he needs help getting into the building” Nick said picking up his beer.  
“Wait, he try get into the building alone yes? Why do you not help this man?” Victor asked after he finished his beer.  
“someone needs to keep an eye on the kid while he's getting the cure” Nick said leaning forward on the bar.  
“Ahh i see. Well I would be happy to help! Any friend of yours is a friend of mine!” Victor said with a big grin on his face.  
“he's not my friend. I'm just helping him so he can save his daughter” Nick said looking to his beer.  
“He seems like a good man, why you not friends with him?” Victor asked Nick giving him a confused look then finishing his beer  
“You know how I feel about mercs” Nick said before he took a drink of his beer.  
“Ah but you and I are friends yes? I am Merc as you say” Victor said taking a drink of his second beer.  
“Let's just help him get this cure. So you willing to help?” Nick said avoiding the question. Victor didn't mind though.  
“Yes I help get cure, save the child!” he said slamming his beer down and hitting Nick on the back laughing.


	3. Pretty little horses

MacCready stood up and stretched his leg back and forth.  
“See, I'm good to go” he said looking at doctor sun.  
“All right all right. Your good, just don't go doing anything stupid after this” he said giving MacCready the eyebrow. He looked at Nick, nodded and left Nick's office. Nick watched him leave then looked back to MacCready.  
“you still wanting to go today?” Nick asked looking back to MacCready was still stretching.  
“I gotta get that cure as soon as possible” he said as he looked to Nick.  
“Alright, Victor said he was ready when you are. So I'll go get him, introduce you two and then you can head out” Nick said as he looked towards the room the little girl was sleeping.  
“ok” MacCready said, a little quieter than normal, but Nick didn't think anything of it. MacCready watched as Nick disappeared out the door. Almost as soon as he left, MacCready made his way to the room where his daughter was sleeping. He sat on the ground next the bed, and just watched her breathe for awhile. He felt sick to his stomach. There was his daughter, badly sick, and for the moment all he could do was watch. How could he let this happen to the only person he has left? He scooted closer to the bed and put one hand above her head and started to run his fingers through her dark brown hair. With his free hand, he carefully grabbed hers and just held her hand, as if it was a comfort to her, or to him. He started to hum a pre-war lullaby that his wife used to sing to their daughter. Quietly he started to sing.  
“Go to sleep, go to sleep  
Go to sleep little baby  
When you wake, right away  
On the pretty little horses  
Black and bay  
Sorrel and gray  
Whole heap of little horses  
Black and gray  
Sorrel and bay  
Whole heap of little horses  
Go to sleep, go to sleep  
Go to sleep little baby”  
He was blinking rapidly to keep the tears away. All he could do was watch as this sickness was taking over his little girl. She didn't understand why she felt sick, in her little mind she didn't understand what sickness was. He noticed as he sang the lullaby she seemed to look more calm and rest easier, as soon as he stopped all that disappeared. If for the moment all he could do for her was sing, then that's what he was going to do.  
“Hush-a-bye, don't you cry,  
Go to sleep my little baby.  
When you wake you shall have  
All the pretty little horses.  
Black and bays, dapples, grays,  
All the pretty little horses.  
Hush-a-bye, don't you cry,  
Go to sleep my little baby.  
Hush-a-bye, don't you cry,  
Go to sleep my little baby.  
When you wake you shall have  
All the pretty little horses.”  
It didn't matter how fast he blinked, a few tears fell down his cheeks. He didn't notice that as he sang, Nick and Victor had walked in. They didn't walk into the room, they just stayed in the hallway listening. Victor was a big man, he looked very tough, but as he listened he just stared at the floor with a sad look on his face. Once MacCready had stopped singing Nick knocked on the wall to let MacCready know they were there. MacCready quickly looked up to see them standing there, he looked back down and wiped away his tears. He ran his fingers through her hair one last time and got up. He looked over to the two standing there.  
“How long-” he started to say.  
“Long enough” Nick said before turning around and walking back into the main office, Victor and MacCready followed. Nick stopped in the middle of the room and turned around to face both of them.  
“Victor, this is MacCready, he's the one who needs help getting into Med-Tek” Nick said half pointing at MacCready while looking at Victor.   
“Ah uh yes, my name is Veector” he said in his heavy Russian accent. He put his hand forward for a handshake.  
“Hey, I'm MacCready” he said shaking Victor's hand.   
“So I take it you know what we are doing” MacCready said looking up at Victor  
“Ah yes, we break into building, kill somethings, get cure, come back and have some beers, yes?” He said with a grin. MacCready gave a half laugh and nodded.  
“Well then, we shall go yes?” Victor said picking up a backpack he had set next to the door.  
“Yeah let's get moving” MacCready said grabbing his bag and rifle.  
“Hey you two, be careful” Nick said looking at the both of them. MacCready was the first to walk out the door. Just before Victor had a chance to follow Nick set his hand in Victor's shoulder. Victor turned around and looked at Nick.  
“Don't let him do anything stupid” Nick said before turning to go back to his desk. Victor simply nodded and followed MacCready out the door.

They walked for about an hour in silence. MacCready had been walking a pace or two behind Victor, he was obviously upset. Victor was normally a very talkative person, but he wasn't sure what to say. Finally the silence was broken.  
“What is her name?” Victor asked not looking away from the road ahead of them.  
“What?” MacCready asked looking at Victor then back to the road.  
“Your daughter, what's her name?” Victor said glancing at MacCready. It was quiet for a bit before MacCready answered.  
“Um Autumn Lucy MacCready” he said quietly as he watched the road.  
“Wait, so MacCready is your last name then? I feel betrayed somehow my friend. So what is your name then?” Victor said looking to MacCready with a grin.  
“Uh, Robert Joseph MacCready” he said  
“I used to be called RJ but now I just go by MacCready” he said shifting the gun on his back.  
“Then I shall call you RJ my friend. Using last name just seems weird to me” Victor said nodding to himself.   
“You do not mind?” Victor said quickly looking back at MacCready.  
“Uh I guess” he said looking up at Victor. Victor gave MacCready a big smile. They walked for another half hour in silence.  
“So, how did she become sick? What happened?” Victor asked as they walked.  
“I-i-i don't know what happened. One day she was playing out behind our farm and the next these blue boils popped up all over her body” MacCready said as he quickened his pace.  
“Children do not deserve what this cruel world throws at them. me and my wife found this very young boy wandering the streets of the Commonwealth. My wife she could not have children of her own, so she begged me to let us adopt the boy, she didn't not even need to ask. He's a very nice child, very respectful. He did not deserve to be abandoned by his real parents, but that's what this cruel place threw his way” Victor said. He thought that if he shared something about his own life, it might in a way make MacCready feel better, if nothing else feel better about working with him.   
“This whole word is fuc- the world is a cruel place” MacCready said correcting himself.  
“I agree. But if we can help your child, then it's not so bad you know?” Victor said, with his heavy Russian accent.

They finally reached Med-Tek about 3 hours before the sun was going to go down. Giving them plenty of time to get in get the cure and set up camp for the night. They reached the parking lot where MacCready had been a few days before. All the ferals he killed were still there where he left them.  
“Was this you?” Victor asked pointing at some of the body's on the ground.  
“Yup” MacCready said walking cautiously. A few ferals tried running at them but they took care of them quickly. They both walked up to the front door and stopped.  
“Ready?” MacCready asked Victor as he stared at the door.  
“Depends, are you ready my friend?” Victor asked putting his hands on his waist.  
“Let's get that cure” MacCready said before he opened the door.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> https://youtu.be/AWoPsyY8CZY song-pretty little horses used as lullaby (best version I could find anyway)


	4. Good team yes?

The main lobby of Med-Tek was full of junk and trash. Chairs had been flipped over, parts of the walls were missing. In front of them was a desk with a computer.  
“Wow, these places they built pre-war. They are amazing yes?” Victor said looking around.  
“makes you wish you coulda seen what it was really like pre-war” MacCready said as he walked over to the computer at the front desk. All of a sudden he heard a type of growl and then something grabbed his back. He tried to turn and shoot whatever was grabbing his back but it pinned him to desk. He felt drool fall down his neck. Out of nowhere there was a loud bang and the creature fell off his back. He spun around to see a feral lying on the ground behind him dead. He looked back at Victor who was holding a combat rifle with a big smirk on his face.  
“You ok my friend?” Victor said lowering his rifle.  
“Yeah, thanks” MacCready said nodding at Victor. MacCready was on the computer for a short time while Victor looked around.  
“Alright I found where they kept research and development. Bottom floor, but it's underground, I don't understand this floor system they have, but I know where it is. Shi- ugh” MacCready said before and alarm started going off.  
“What the hell” Victor said looking up at the red flashing lights.  
“I.. I .. I don't know what happen, I think I triggered a failsafe. Ugh the whole building is shut down we can't get to the cure. We are gonna have to find the director terminal and shut it off” MacCready said very irritated. They walked through a long hallway to the stairs. Just before the stairs was a small room which led to the bathroom. As they entered this room and feral fell from the ceiling and landed and Victor. Just before it landed on him there was a loud bang. the feral was dead before it hit Victor, but that didn't stop him from grabbing it off him and slamming it to a wall. Victor looked to MacCready with a grin on his face.  
“You know I had, um how you say, doubts when you brought a sniper rifle inside this, uh small roomed building i mean, it not good place for sniping, but you are a really good shot” Victor said as they continued to the stairs.  
“Uh, thanks?” MacCready said looking back at Victor then back to the stairs. They walked as far up the stairs they could before the stairs we're too broken to continue. Then they walked into a larger room full of computers. They fought off some ferals before finally finding an office room with the directors terminal.  
“Let's hope those passwords Sinclair gave me actually work” MacCready said as he got onto the computer.  
“Yes! thank God these worked” MacCready said as he went through the computer and turned off the alarm.  
“Ah all is good now, we get cure and get out of creepy building” Victor said nodding with a smile. They went out if the office, back down the stairs and past the reception area into the back of the building.  
“Alright, one last terminal and we're in” MacCready said as he unlocked the door to the labs.  
“Let's go” he said when he was finished. There were a few ferals in the lab, but they were able to take care of them quickly. They made their way to an elevator which led to the lower levels of the building. They got into the elevator and pushed the lowest available floor button. The elevator was a little cramped with both of them but it wasn't too bad. As they stepped out of the elevator they were tackled by several ferals. MacCready didn't have anytime to fire a shot before he dropped his rifle. Two ferals pinned him to the wall, he managed to get and arm free to grab his pistol out of it's holster and shoot one of them, the other was to close for him to shoot. Just before the feral was able to do anything Victor grabbed it and slammed it against the wall and then he threw it into some other ferals knocking them down. MacCready shot them before they were able to get up.  
“Thanks Victor” MacCready said as he exhaled heavily.  
“Anytime my friend” Victor said smiling. They walked down some stairs into a large room with a hallway at the end leading to the lab. MacCready and Victor walked cautiously towards the hallway, as they did a few ferals ran at them, but they managed to take them out without any trouble.  
“We make a good team, yes?” Victor asked as he shot one of the ferals.  
“Yeah” MacCready said with almost a surprised voice. They cleared the room and continued to the lab. They entered a large room with another room sectioned off in the middle.  
“Why would they put a smaller room in the middle of a big room?” Victor asked very confused.  
“I read in the terminal that it's supposed to help keep the lab decontaminated” MacCready said as he rounded a corner looking for a way into the lab. They walked around the smaller room looking for the entrance to the lab, until finally found the doors but they was locked, and the only way in was through another terminal.  
“Getting real tired of these fuc- ugh, these dang terminals” MacCready said as he tried to unlock the doors. The doors unlocked and almost as soon as they opened the doors out ran too many ferals for MacCready or Victor to count. Victor picked one up and threw it at some of them knocking them to the ground. MacCready shot the downed ones so they wouldn't get back up. Then a few of them ran into MacCready knocking him to the ground. Victor tried to help but he was surrounded with ferals. MacCready shot a few of the ones on top of him but then his gun jammed.  
“Fuc-ugh, crap” he yelled, with the butt of his pistol he hit some of the ferals but that did nothing against them. He pulled out his knife and stabbed the one directly above him, but almost as soon as he did this another one took its place. He stabbed another feral and pushed it over. he managed to get free from the ferals and get to his feet. once he got up He pulled his sniper rifle off his back and shot some of the ferals. He noticed that Victor was surrounded with ferals and so he took aim and tried shooting one that had a hold of Victor's arm, but as he pulled the trigger a feral ran into him, MacCready fell over a cart and hit his head on the wall hard. The room was spinning and MacCready couldn't focus. The feral that had pushed him over had fallen onto the cart as well. It got up and was about to get MacCready but just then Victor grabbed it shoved it back and shot it.  
“MacCready? You ok?” Victor said kneeling next to MacCready. MacCready had one hand on his head and he was squinting his eyes. His head was spinning.  
“Hey” Victor said putting his hand on MacCready's shoulder.  
“How many fingers am I holding up?” Victor asked holding up 2 fingers in front of MacCready. He didn't respond for a moment.  
“2?” He said looking back to Victor.  
“Ha! You are fine” he said standing up and offering a hand to help MacCready get up. As he got up MacCready noticed Victor's arm was bleeding.  
“Feral got you” he said as he grabbed his pistol off the ground.  
“What? Oh haha that? Haha” Victor started laughing, MacCready looked at him confused.  
“Haha that was you my friend. You take your little sniper rifle, go bang at feral. Hit feral yes but hit me as well. Not as good a shot as you thought huh? Haha” Victor said laughing.  
“Shi- ugh.. hey I don't miss, there was a feral that ran into me, Sorry about that. Here” MacCready said as he handed Victor a stimpack.  
“Haha, sure you miss because of feral we can go with that. Haha, thank you my friend” Victor said taking the stimpack from MacCready and sticking it in his arm. MacCready started to pick up his sniper rifle off the ground by then he realized something and dropping his rifle he ran into the lab. Victor watched for a moment, he was confused but he didn't say anything. He simply picked up MacCready's sniper rifle and went into the lab. In the middle of the room, was a large table with random tools and other miscellaneous things on it. Around the perimeter of the lab, we're smaller operating tables. There was random junk here and there, all over the place. Victor found MacCready on the opposite side of the table in the middle of the room. He was searching frantically for something.  
“Come on! It's gotta be here somewhere! It has to be!” MacCready said and he tossed a box he had searched through off the table.  
“Where is it!” He yelled his eyes wide trying not to miss a single thing. Victor walked up to the table and started to help look for the cure.  
“What if it's not here? What am I going to do? God what do I do?” MacCready said putting one hand on the table and the other covering his face. Victor noticed on the opposite side of the table from him was a small rack of tiny injectors, one of them had something in it.  
“MacCready, have you checked that whole side? Maybe it's over there” Victor said pointing in the general direction of the tiny injectors. MacCready looked at Victor, nodded and moved to where he had pointed. With a smile on his face Victor looked down and started to look through some files that had been left on the table. Before long Victor heard MacCready yell.  
“Oh my God! This is it! This has to be it! Victor I found it!” MacCready said with the biggest grin on his face, he couldn't hold back the excitement.  
“See I knew you could find cure” Victor said smiling at MacCready. MacCready's smile slowly faded though.  
“How do we know this Is the cure or that it will even work?” He asked looking at the cure.  
“Here look at this” Victor said walking around the table and handing MacCready one if the files. He examined it closely, reading everything on it. There were a lot of big sciency words he didn't understand, but when he got to the symptoms part of the file his eyes widened  
“Blue boils, extreme exhaustion, pain and fatigue. That's almost a perfect description” he continued to read on.  
“Working cure perfected and ready for reproduction" he read aloud.  
“injector number 13897” he read off the file then he looked to the injector in his hand  
“13897, this is it!” He said the excitement returning to his face. Victor laughed and slapped MacCready's back  
“ Ha, I knew you would get it!” Victor said smiling. They started to walk out if the lab but before they reached the door MacCready fell to the side grabbing a table for support.  
“What the hel- ugh” MacCready said looking down at his leg which was bleeding.  
“Ha! I guess feral got you too my friend” Victor said laughing. MacCready slid his backpack off and started to look for another stimpack.  
“Shi- ugh crap i'm out of stimpacks” MacCready said looking up at Victor. He pulled some bandages out of his backpack and wrapped the around his leg.  
“It's not that bad, i'll be fine till we get to Diamond city” he said as he put his backpack back on. Victor handed him his sniper rifle and he used it to lean on  
“How you not feel feral bite your leg?” Victor asked looking down to MacCready.  
“Adrenaline i guess” he said as they walked out of the lab.

By the time they got out of the building it was already dark. MacCready started to walk in the Direction of Diamond city but victor stopped him.  
“We camp for the night, leave in the morning” he said looking at MacCready who was clutching the tiny injector like his life depended on it. He was very obviously tired and Victor knew this.  
“We have to get this back as soon as possible” MacCready said trying to walk past Victor, but once again Victor stopped him.  
“Walking in the dark, it's stupid idea so we camp for the night” he said looking at MacCready. MacCready nodded, It was obvious he wasn't going to win this argument.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reading my fanfic!


	5. Balancing The Books

They found an old store near Med-Tek that wasn't in too bad a condition, They camped on the roof and started a small campfire. MacCready sat next to the fire, he still had a huge smile on his face. He just looked at the cure that he held so tightly, as if it was going to get away.  
“We get back i buy beer yes?” Victor said as he sat down on the other side of the fire, across from MacCready, so he could keep an eye on the doorway to the rooftop.  
“I already owe you big time for helping me get this, i dont think id like to add more to the score” MacCready said looking up from the cure to Victor.  
“What? Bah, you don't owe me for this, i didn't really do anything, I kill a few things and that's all” Victor said as he pulled a water bottle from his backpack.  
“No, i definitely owe you big time, you helped me save my daughter. I wouldn't have been able to get the cure without your help. Thats huge in my book” MacCready said pulling his backpack over and pulling out his water bottle.  
“Do not, how you say um… ah worry about balancing the books” Victor said smiling at MacCready.  
“You've helped me so much, there's gotta be something i can do for you to balance the books” MacCready said wrapping the cure with a t-shirt and stuffing it in his bag.  
“Are we friends?” victor asked setting his water bottle down.  
“You helped saved my daughter, id say we are pretty great friends” MacCready said looking up to Victor.  
“Then consider the books balanced” Victor said with a grin on his face.  
“Wait what?” MacCready said confused.  
“That's the favor i wanted from you. It's hard to find good friends in the commonwealth” Victor said tossing some wood into the fire. MacCready looked down at the fire and smiled. It was quiet for a short time as they both worked through their own thoughts.  
“I have a question for you my friend” Victor said looking from the fire to MacCready who looked like he was going to fall over asleep any minute.  
“Ok, ask away” he said blinking rapidly to try and stay awake.  
“In the building, you would start to curse, but then you would stop. Why?” Victor asked MacCready.  
“Ah yeah i figured you would ask me about that sooner or later, uh well its kinda a long story” he said looking back down to the fire.  
“Ah we have time, i'm not planning on going anywhere” Victor said with his big grin  
“Ah um… well when Autumn got sick, my best option was coming to the commonwealth. So we hitched a ride with this caravan that was headed to the Commonwealth. well they dropped us off where they said they would, but the place abandoned. I didn't know what to do or where to go from there. So there we are, Autumn was sitting on the ground under a tree and i'm pacing back and forth. I eventually got so pis- uh angry that i started cursing and throwing rocks. Well after a bit of that i feel this tug on my jacket and i turn around and theres Autumn standing there crying. She looked up at me with tears in her eye and says “dad…. Dad i don't like you being mad. I don't like the words” so i pick her up and we both made a promise that if i cleaned up my act, she would never curse like me. So i've been trying to keep that promise ever since. Kinda sounds stupid now that i think about it” MacCready said looking towards some other buildings off in the distance. Victor had a small smile on his face.  
“It's not stupid. You are good dad, doing that for your daughter” he said after a short time, but MacCready had already fallen asleep.

It was early in the morning when they left but MacCready wanted to get the cure back to his daughter as soon as possible. They walked in silence the entire way back to DiamondCity. It was strange, the walk didn't seem to take very long, not as long as it did before, but MacCready didn't think anything of it, he was glad to get back. They reached DiamondCity and MacCready quickly rushed to Nick's office. He walked in the door with a smile on his face. Nick's office was strange, some the furniture was missing like the filing cabinets and the couch, the wall disappeared into darkness. In the middle of the room stood Nick who was looking at MacCready.  
“We got it Nick!” MacCready said excitedly, but Nick only stared at him.  
“Your too late. You failed” Nick said looking at MacCready with no emotion on his face. All of a sudden everything started to spin and then go black, a million emotions went through MacCready's head.  
“I…. I failed her….. I failed them both” MacCready said falling to his knees. All of a sudden a light was turned on and there was his wife and daughter standing in front of him, his wife was holding his daughter's hand. She was wearing the white dress he got her when they got married. She tilted her head and looked down to him.  
“How could you do this again? You've lost both of us. I thought I could trust you, but I guess I was wrong. Your not even a soldier, your just a killer. A hired gun who couldn't keep his wife and only daughter alive” she said turning her back to him and walking away with their daughter. As they walked away they faded into darkness.  
“No! No! Wait please Lucy, come back I can fix this! I have the cure! ……….. please don't leave me again….. don't take her” he yelled trying to get up but he was chained to the floor.the shock from the nightmare woke MacCready, he opened his eyes to see he was back on the roof of the store. He sat up and rubbed his face with his hands.  
“You ok?” Victor asked tilting his head and looking at MacCready.  
“I'm fine” MacCready said harshly not looking at Victor. The sun was just barely up, and it was still pretty dark out.  
“Let's go” MacCready said still very irritated. He grabbed his backpack and stood up ignoring the pain shooting up his leg. He grabbed his rifle which was leaning against a box and slung it over his shoulder. Victor grabbed his backpack and followed MacCready to the door.

They had been walking for about an hour in silence. All the joy of getting the cure had faded from MacCready, now all he felt was worry. Would they get there in time? Is she going to be ok? All theses thoughts flooded his mind with worry and grief, he would never admit it to anyone though. He was deep in thought when he was pulled back to reality after hearing his name being called several times.  
“RJ?” Victor said looking down to MacCready.  
“Yeah?” MacCready said looking ahead at the road. Victor was quiet for a bit trying to think of something to talk about.  
“Your wife, she must be pretty worried about you and your daughter. Nick said you had to leave her behind in capital wasteland” Victor said deciding this topic was a safe one to talk about.  
“My wife….. she's dead” MacCready said simply not looking away from the road. Victors eyes widened, he looked down.  
“I.. I am sorry. I did not know” he said still looking down. MacCready didn't reply, he was lost in his own thoughts. It was silent for a while. MacCready was lost in his thoughts and Victor didn't know what else to say. After a while the silence was broken by Victor.  
“What…… what happen to her?” He asked glancing at MacCready.  
“Ferals” MacCready said simply. Victor nodded, figuring that enough of a reply.  
“Sem'ya ne glavnaye. Eto vse” Victor said something in Russian which caught MacCready attention. He looked up to Victor with a confused look on his face.  
“family is not an important thing. It's everything. basically what it means” Victor said nodding to himself.  
“Yeah” MacCready said looking back to the road.  
“So, beer when we get back? I buy. It's like victory beer, we did good job yes?” Victor said trying to change the subject.  
“I don't know, i'd rather you not buy for me” MacCready said looking up to Victor.  
“You know what, I'll buy all the beer and then you will have to let me give you a beer because they won't have any left haha” Victor said laughing and slapping MacCready on the back. MacCready started laughing with Victor. They talked almost all the way back to DiamondCity, swapping mercenary stories. When They reached the gate of DiamondCity MacCready paused for a moment. His fears about being too late started to rush back into his head. Victor slapped his back.  
“We made it” Victor said as he stood next to MacCready. They started to walk in to the city. MacCready hoped they did make it in time.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reading! Hope you enjoyed!


	6. Peacefully

as soon as they entered DiamondCity MacCready made a bolt for Nick's office. Victor laughed and slowly followed his friend. When MacCready reached Nick's office He burst through the door to see Nick standing near his desk, he was pouring so water into a small cup.  
“She still..” MacCready started to say but he didn't want to finish his sentence. Nick opened his mouth to say something but stopped when they heard a small voice from the other room.  
“Daddy?” the voice called out. As soon as MacCready heard this voice his eye lit up like a pre-war Christmas tree. He didn't stand there for longer than a second before he made a dash for the back room. Nick watched as he ran and disappeared in the room his daughter was in. Nick smiled and set down the water and started to follow into the other room when Victor walked in.  
“Ah Nick, we make it in time yes?” Victor said quietly looking at Nick. He nodded with a smile.  
Victor smiled back at nick. Victor set a hand on nicks shoulder and looked towards the back room.  
“Tell my friend, I wish the best. He would probably like some time so I go to bar, the Bobrov brothers owe me a drink. Ah and tell my friend that when he gets chance he should come to bar and I buy him beer and we celebrate” Victor said before he turned to leave.Nick walked into the other room to see MacCready holding the little child and rocking back and forth. His face was buried in her shoulder, and his eyes were closed as he rocked her back and forth. She was clinging to him, her arms were wrapped around his neck tightly. She had also buried her face in his shoulder. Nick and waited for a short time while the two hugged. After a bt he cleared his throat which got MacCready's attention. MacCready looked up to the nick, his face bright and happy. Nick has seen this look before, it's the look a parent gets when Nick returns with their missing child. He didn't fully understand why MacCready had this look, his child wasn't missing. Nick decided that this is something he'll never fully understand, since he didn't have any kids and was a synth.  
“Hey, did you still want some water?” Nick asked quietly as he walked a little closer to the two. She slowly peaked her head up from his shoulder and nodded. He handed her the cup, which she took a small drink from and then coughed a little. She handed the glass back and laid her head back down on her father's shoulder. MacCready jerked his head around to his backpack. He had the cure, the one thing that would make her better. He slowly set her back down on the bed and turned to grab the cure from his backpack. His hands were shaking as unwrapped the t-shirt protecting the cure. Nick must have noticed this, no matter how hard MacCready tried to hide it, Nick could still tell.  
“Here let me do it. Doc sun has showed me how to do these type of things” Nick said as he walked up to MacCready. He extended his hand for the cure and MacCready hesitated. He didn't want anyone besides himself to have the cure but he knew it would be better for Autumn if Nick did it. He slowly handed over the cure and turned back to his daughter. She was sitting criss cross on the bed. Hey eyes were sunken in and foggy. Her eyelids were heavy and she wasn't paying attention to anything. She looked horrible. Blue boils covered her tiny body, Some even had dried blood from her scratching them. She was wearing an oversized green t-shirt and a pair of pants that had been cut to fit her. Nick guess MacCready had used some of his cloths for her. He knew MacCready had next to no caps to his name, he had spent every last one to get here to save his daughter. Nick and MacCready both knelt next to the bed she was sitting on. Nick decided to let MacCready explain what was going on. When she saw her dad her face lit up a little, it wasn't much but it was the best this little girl could. She made an attempt to scoot closer to her father, so she could lean on him, but this very obviously pained her to do but she continued to do it anyway. MacCready wrapped his arms around her and slid her over to him, trying to help her. “Shes definitely stubborn like her father” Nick thought to himself. Once she was close to him she leaned on his chest, she had her arms wrapped around him as best she could.  
“My friend has something that's going to make you better ok? He's going to give you a shot, but I promi-” MacCready choked on his words.  
“I promise it's going to make you all better ok?” He said to her as he rubbed her back. She slowly nodded. MacCready lifted one of her sleeves and Nick carefully put one hand on her arm and with the other he poked the injector into her arm. She winced a little and tightened her grip on MacCready's coat. He held it on her arm till it made a click and the injector was empty. He put the injector down and grabbed a first aid kit he kept under the bed for her. He pulled out a cotton ball and rubbed it around her arm. Once he was satisfied that the cure was working it's way through her blood he got a bandaid and put it on her arm.  
“All done” Nick said before he stood back up. He noticed that she was looking up to him, he smiled and nodded, she gave a weak smile in return.

It had been about 2 hours since Autumn was given the cure, and all that time MacCready stayed with her. The entire time he just sat on the floor holding her rocking back and forth. From time to time Nick could her MacCready humming something, the tune sounded very similar to the lullaby he had heard MacCready sing the day before. Nick had decided it would be best if he left MacCready alone, altho he did go in once to give MacCready a stimpack Victor had brought. Victor and Nick both knew no matter how hard they tried they weren't going to get him to go see the doc, so the next best thing was a stimpack. Nick could already hear that Autumn was getting better, she was still coughing quite a bit but now it was much less. After a while Nick decided he would check on MacCready and see if he needed anything. It had probably been a while since he had something to eat. So Nick stood up from his desk, which was littered with case files old and new. Nick slowly walked to the backroom that they were in. He tried not to make too much noise as he walked, but being almost all metal it was hard. When he reached the backroom he saw that MacCready had put Autumn back on the bed. She was laying down on the bed sleeping…. Peacefully. Nick realised this was probably the first time she had slept like this for a long time. He noticed that MacCready was sitting in the floor leaning on the bed. He was sound asleep, he still had one hand on Autumn's head and the other holding her hand. Nick decided to leave the two alone, they both desperately needed sleep. He smiled at the two and then quietly left the room.

MacCready didn't know how long he was asleep for, but when he woke up he had a kink in his neck. He slowly sat up while rubbing the pain in his neck. He suddenly had a jolt of adrenaline run through his body once he realized something. Autumn was gone.  
“Autumn?” He said looking around before he quickly got up.  
“Autumn?!” He said looking around the room once more, then running out to the main room.  
“Nick Autumn is-” he started to say but stopped when he saw her sitting at Nick's desk eating a bowl of noodles from Takahashi's noodle stand. She looked over to him with a noodle hanging from her mouth. She finished her bite and smiled, but quickly went back to eating. MacCready was very confused, but she did look a lot better, the boils were still covering her body, but her skin was no longer a very pale, and she had some life return to her face. Nick walked up beside him and put a hand on his shoulder.  
“She said that she was hungry. I didn't really have anything that she would like in the office, So I took her out and got her a bowl of noodles. Man she wasn't kidding when she said she was hungry. Sorry we didn't wake you, I'm fairly certain you needed the sleep anyway, and she said you don't sleep much anyway so she was ok with letting you sleep” Nick said nodding. MacCready was speechless, this was the first time in a while that he had seen Autumn smile at him. He didn't even register that Nick was talking to him, he was so focused on his little girl. He saved her, for once in his life he was able to save the one thing he loved. All other times he failed, he failed his wife, he even failed himself….. several times over. But this time, this time he didn't fail, he didn't fail the only family he has left. Nick had stopped talking when he realized that MacCready wasn't paying attention, he did noticed that MacCready had a huge smile on his face. MacCready was brought back to reality when he felt something tapping his shoulder. He turned to see Nick looking at him with a questioning look on his face.  
“You ok with that?” Nick asked MacCready who had no idea what he was asking.  
“Sorry… what was that?” MacCready said as he quickly looked back to Autumn, as if to make sure she was still there.  
“I have some stuff to do in town, you two gonna be good for about and hour or two?” Nick reaped looking at MacCready.  
“Oh, yeah we'll be good” he said quickly before looking back to Autumn. Nick smiled and laughed a bit, he then turned and disappeared out the door.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hooray! Another one down. Man being sick with nothing to do really helps me get these chapters done. Well sorta this one has been in the works for about 2 weeks. I've changed this chapter so man times that I don't think it's anywhere close to the original. Well I hope you like the chapter! Let me know what you think in the comments. Thank you for reading!


	7. GoodNeighbor

It had been about 3 weeks since MacCready and Victor got Autumn the cure. Within the first week almost all color had returned to her skin, her face was bright and happy and she had regained most of her energy. Within the second week she had stopped coughing entirely, and about half way through the third week the boils had disappeared completely. She was back to being a happy energetic little girl. Nick was able to find her some clothes that were closer to her size, altho she insisted on continuing to wear her father's old t-shirt. Nick didn't argue, as long as she's comfortable he was happy. A few days after they got her the cure Victor had to go home to his wife and kid back in GoodNeighbor.Victor came to DiamondCity at least once a week to go out for beer with his new friend. He never went to the office though, He insisted that MacCready's daughter get enough time to rest before she meet some new people, he also said that this gave him more time to “think of best first impression” which made Nick and MacCready laugh a bit.

MacCready was sitting on the couch reading some old Grognak comics that Victor had brought for him and Autumn last time he was in town. MacCready was anxious, barely able to focus on what he was reading. He had made plans to move to GoodNeighbor with Autumn. He decided that would be the best place to find his kind of work but he still had to tell Nick about this plan. DiamondCity seemed to nice and structural for a hired gun. He looked over next to him where Autumn was sitting and quietly playing with her stuff animal. He smiled and just watched her for a moment. She only had one toy, which wasn't really even a toy it was just a stuffed animal yao guai that Lucy had made for her before she was born (that admittedly was much cuter and more fuzzy than an actual yao guai) she loved this thing, she never went anywhere without it and it was a very rare sight to see her without it. This was the only thing she had to play with and yet, she was content as can be. MacCready continued to smile and he went back to the comics he was reading, although still unable to really focus on it. After a while he looked back at her to see she was curled up and asleep, he also noticed that she was holding on tightly to her stuff animal. He grabbed the blanket he had been using at night and lightly draped it over her. As he did this Nick walked in the door.  
“Hey, you got a sec I wanna talk about something with you” Nick said as he motioned for MacCready to follow him outside. He got up slowly as to not wake Autumn. He followed Nick outside and into the alley that the door to Nick's office was in. Nick stopped and lit a cigarette, he offered one to MacCready who refused. It was raining outside which made a nice sounds on the metal roofing. They were luck, the alley was covered so they didn't get to wet. Nick took a few puffs of his cigarette and started to talk.  
“So I've been thinking…. You and I both know that Autumn is very smart for her age. The guy who runs the school owes me a few favors and I already talked to him and he was ok with coming by after school a few days a week and teaching her. Nothing major just little stuff you know to get her started and there's a house in town that's for sale, I'll help with caps to pay for it, not like I need the-" Nick was saying but MacCready interrupted.  
“Nick. Nick don't get me wrong I can't thank you enough for everything you've done for me and Autumn but…. I'm taking Autumn to GoodNeighbor.” He said leaning against the wall. Nick was eyeing him carefully almost as soon as he said this.  
“You can't be serious. That place is full of drunks and chem addicts” Nick said with anger coming out of every word.  
“I'm a hired gun, I go where I can find work. Sounds like the best place to find work is in GoodNeighbor” MacCready said with a cool tone ignoring Nick's glare.  
“Alright wanna make a huge mistake be my guest” Nick said before he tossed his cigarette and walked away towards the bar. When Nick turned a corner and was out of sight MacCready let out a large sigh. He decided that the sooner they leave the better. Just as he opened the door he ran into Autumn who had tears running down her cheeks.  
“Dad!?” She said before a river of tears fell down her face and onto her shirt.  
“Hey it's ok. what's wrong? why are you crying?” MacCready asked a little worried as he picked her up.  
“You…” she paused and sniffed trying very hard to stop crying.  
“You and Mr. Nick…. You were both gone and I was alone and I thought you were never coming back..” she said then started crying again, as she was crying she wrapped her arms around him and buried her face in his shoulder. He was silent for a bit, he just rocked her back and forth.  
“just stepped out for Abit. But don't you worry I'm never going to leave you ok? Never.” He said as he continued to rock back and forth.

They had packed up the very few items MacCready decided was worth keeping when they came to the Commonwealth. All of it was able to fit into a backpack with room to spare. Autumn was sad to leave, she liked Nick and she liked DiamondCity, but she didn't argue. Nick had returned by the time they were ready to leave. He stood by the door and watched as MacCready helped Autumn put on a small old and torn coat and worn shoes. She was still holding onto her stuff animal which made getting her coat on a little difficult, but MacCready made no effort to make her put it down. Nick watched as MacCready made sure Autumn was ready and ok before he did anything else.  
“He loves his kid, that's for sure” Nick thought to himself. Once MacCready was satisfied that Autumn was ready, he then made sure he himself was ready and had everything. He checked both his guns to make sure they were loaded and ready. Once everything was to his satisfaction he looked up to Nick who was leaning on the door frame looking back at him.  
“Nick… thank you fo-” MacCready started to say but Nick interrupted.  
“Save it, I didn't do this for you” Nick said looking down to Autumn. She ran up to Nick arms wide waiting for a hug. He smiled and knelt down and hugged her.  
“Goodbye Mr. Nick” she said as she hugged him tightly.  
“Goodbye kid” he said before letting go and standing back up. MacCready walked past Nick and opened the door. He glanced back at Nick nodded and was out the door before either of them could say a thing. Autumn followed behind him and before Nick knew it the door was closed and he was alone in his office. He would Never admit it to them but he was going to miss the two.

They left DiamondCity and headed straight to GoodNeighbor. It didn't take them long to get there and they didn't run into any raiders or super mutants which made MacCready happy. As they entered GoodNeighbor they were greeted by a tough looking man wearing a greaser Jacket and jeans. He was smoking a cigarette and leaning on the brick wall. When he noticed the two walk into GoodNeighbor he tossed his cigarette and walked towards the two. Autumn saw the man coming and moved behind MacCready, only peeking out from behind him to watch the man. He walked right up to MacCready and stared him straight in the eye.  
“hey hold up there. First time in GoodNeighbor? Can't go walking around without insurance” the man said smirking. He was trying to intimidate MacCready which didn't make him happy in the slightest.  
“Back the f- ugh back off or your gonna need insurance for some missing teeth” MacCready said back at the man. MacCready had one hand on his holster and the other to keep Autumn behind him. The man started to laugh at MacCready.  
“Haha what? Afraid to curse in front of your little girl? Huh fucker?” The man said smirking at MacCready. Just before he could say anything back to the man a large figure appeared behind the man, the figure tapped the man on the shoulder. He turned around to see Victor standing there smiling.  
“Finn… what has Hancock told you about leaving the guests alone hm?” Victor said putting a hand on Finns shoulder.  
“I ain't scared of you. You fat mothe-” he started to say but was cut off when Victor grabbed his head and slammed it into his knee then tossing him to the side. He fell on his back, he slowly looked back up to Victor and mumbled something before getting up and running back towards the alley.  
“I'm sorry about that, usually he listens but I guess he won't forget that again huh?” Victor said as he watched Finn run away. He then turned back to MacCready with a large grin.  
“My friend! You made it!” He said before giving MacCready a huge which from MacCready's point of view Victor just crushed all his bones.  
“Hey- Victor good to see you to” he said before Victor let him go. Victor was smiling at MacCready before he noticed the small figure hiding behind his friend.  
“You must be Autumn. It's nice to finally meet you your highness” Victor said smiling as he got one knee and bowed to the small girl. Hey eyes widened in amazement. She just stood there holding her stuff animal watching as he bowed to her. He looked up to her and smiled.  
“I'm Victor” he said holding out a large hand for her to shake. She held her stuff animal tighter and moved to be more behind her father.  
“Ah I am pretty scary looking huh? Well don't worry I'm not scary, me and your dad are friends yes?” Victor said nodding and looking up to MacCready who looked down at Autumn and nodded. She slowly took a step away from her dad and shook his large hand which was still extended to her. Victor smiled and nodded to her before he stood back up.  
“so glad you two are here! Ah my wife would like both of you to come over for dinner tonight. She is making the Commonwealths best brahmin soup you must come!” He said with a grin.  
“I don't know Victor…” MacCready started to say breaking off eye contact with him.  
“Oh please you must! If you don't my wife will have my head for not getting you to come over” Victor said jokingly.  
“Alright well I've got some things to take care of here, if everything goes well then maybe” he said looking back to Victor who looked very pleased with this answer. Victor gave a large grin and slapped one hand on MacCready's shoulder.  
“Haha good!” He said before waving goodbye and walking back towards a small alley that lead to the rest of the town. MacCready looked behind him to see if Autumn was still there. Sure enough she was, and she was looking right up at him. He just looked down at her, unsure of anything at the moment.  
“Come on” he said then started to walk towards the mayor's building.  
They walked into a smoky room with a spiral stairwell in the middle. Guards were at each door and they just watched as the two entered the building. MacCready looked around before locking eyes with one of the guards.  
“Hey, where can I find mayor Hancock?” He said not looking away from the guard. Without saying a word he motioned towards the stairs, MacCready nodded his thanks and walked up the stairs with Autumn close behind. He wasn't letting her get too far away, he even slowed his pace from time to time to make sure she would stay close enough. She was always behind him and when they were moving she was still hiding behind him, which didn't bother MacCready. Protecting her was a hell of a lot easier when she was close. Once they reached the top of the stairs MacCready almost immediately knew where to go. A large set of double doors to his left were wide open. Two guards stationed at each side watched him carefully. He walked over to the doors and into the room. There on the couch in the middle of the room was a ghouls wearing a red frock coat and a tri-tip hat. He was finishing a beer when the two walked in. He looked up from his beer to look at MacCready. It was quiet for a bit as the ghoul studied MacCready.  
“So you must be MacCready. Victor said you would be dropping by” he said as he stood up and walked closer to the two. He held out one hand for MacCready to shake.  
“Names Hancock. Welcome to GoodNeighbor” he said smiling at MacCready. He shook Hancock's hand and just as he did Hancocks gaze dropped. MacCready realized he must have seen Autumn because that's exactly where he was looking.  
“Who's this?” Hancock said looking back up to MacCready.  
“Ah this is my daughter Autumn” MacCready said, but he made no effort to move so she could be seen better.  
“I almost forgot that Victor had mentioned a kid. Well you must be here about the apartment” he said before turning around and heading towards a small fridge in the back of the room. He opened the fridge and pulled out two beers.  
“Beer?” He offered holding it up so it was eye level with MacCready. MacCready's head was screaming yes but his mercenary instinct was screaming the exact opposite. He decided against it. He shook his head and Hancock put it away.  
“Suit yourself” he said before walking back over and sitting back down on the couch. He motioned for the two to come and sit on the opposite couch to his. MacCready cautiously walked over and sat down. Autumn sat at his feet, her head barely coming up above the coffee table for Hancock to see. As she sat down she started to quietly play with her stuffed animal as if she had been waiting to do so ever since they entered the building. MacCready glanced down at her as if he was checking to make sure everything was still ok then he looked back up at Hancock.  
“So I assume Victor already told you about the apartment?” He asked MacCready cooly. He took a drink of his beer but still eyed MacCready very closely. MacCready nodded, his mercenary instinct was telling him to say as little as possible.  
“Alright good. Price is 1500 caps, upfront” as soon as he said this MacCready let out a long exhale. He knew there was no way in hell he could afford that.  
“Look, I can't let you move in or do payments or anything like that, people might think I'm going soft, and I sure as hell ain't going soft. But let me make you a deal. Down stairs is my bar, the third rail. I'll let you use the VIP lounge to set up. It's a good place for a gun-for-hire to uhh sit? I don't know what ever you guys do. It's a good spot because your clients won't feel like their being listened in on. So you set up there make enough caps, pay me and there you go” Hancock said before taking a long drink. MacCready thought on it for a while, he tried to think of anyways this could go wrong, although using this method didn't help save his wife it was still something he did often. How could this go wrong? He thought on this and the room was silent except for the few noises Autumn made from time to time. After a bit of thought he agreed, he didn't have any other choice. This was his best option.  
“Alright” he said simply nodding at Hancock. Hancock smiled back at him and leaned forward to hold out his hand once more for MacCready to shake. He was still cautious but he wasn't impolite, so He shook Hancocks hand and then the meeting was over. They walked out of the building, MacCready feeling some sorta of happiness about this new life in GoodNeighbor, but also some uncertainty. Whatever happens he's still got Autumn, and she's not sick anymore.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Fun fact about my story  
> Autumn was originally a place holder name that I chose randomly. It usually takes me a while to chose the right name for a character. So I had just gotten the idea to do this story and I wanted to write down my thoughts before I went to bed. Well I wasn't really paying attention to the time till it was almost midnight. I needed a name for this character I was writing so I quickly looked through a list of girl names and chose Autumn to be my place holder name until I found a name I liked more. Well skip ahead a few weeks and I had totally forgotten that this was a place holder name till about the 5th chapter was already posted. So I've just gone with it, and at this point I really do like her name and I don't have any plans to change it. So there's my fun fact of the day.  
> I hope you enjoyed my story so far! Thank you for reading!


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